A Few Simple Changes
by mtnetwarrior
Summary: A series of alternate "What if" scenarios that lead to something bigger. What you may ask? That's for another story.
1. Chapter 1: FWBV

**Surprise! New story out of the blue. However this story is important because it will explain events in a future story of mine to be released alongside the final case in "Rise of the Ace Attorney" (more on that later). This is basically a simple three-chapter story that tells of alternate events in the Ace Attorney universe and how they affect the overall plot. Fans will know these characters, so I shouldn't have to describe them, at least not in this story. Disclaimer: I don't own Ace Attorney.**

Chapter 1: Faraday, Wright, Butz, and Von Karma

Byrne Faraday waited in his office for his old friend, Homicide Detective Tyrell Badd, to return with an important piece of evidence for an upcoming murder case. With it, he could not only successfully convict the defendant, but blow open the entire smuggling ring the defendant was supposedly tied to. Soon enough, a knock came on his door. "Come in," he said. Inside walked a uniformed officer. "I have good news and bad news Mr. Faraday," the officer said, "The bad news is that Detective Badd has recently been hospitalized for multiple gunshot wounds. Doctors say he'll live, in spite of the amount of blood he lost."

Faraday closed his eyes. Somehow he had the feeling the smuggling ring was behind it. As he opened his eyes, he said, "And the good news?" The officer handed him a VHS tape, used to record security footage. Faraday smiled. Badd had pulled it off yet again. Dismissing the officer from his office, Faraday popped the tape into his VCR and played the footage. It clearly showed the defendant, Manny Coachen, holding the murder weapon and well as certain documents. As Faraday continued watching, he spotted something a limousine that passed in the background. Rewinding the tape and pausing it, he looked closer. What he saw made his jaw drop.

After the trial, not only was Manny Coachen arrested for murder, it also led to the arrest of many other individuals, all of whom had ties to the smuggling ring. This included the head Amano Group, but also an up and coming prosecutor, a young woman working for an airline company, even the woman who had pretended to be the victim's sister. But the biggest shock was when a prominent general of the Cohdopian military was revealed to be the head of the operation. He apparently had plans to become an ambassador for his country, thus giving him diplomatic immunity in case his crimes were ever revealed. Instead, he found himself court-martialed and imprisoned.

"It's still hard to believe... That it ended so soon and easily," Badd said a few days later. Faraday nodded. "Without that crucial piece of evidence, we'd have been at this for years," Faraday said, "Who knows what lengths we'd have had to go to." As he opened the door to his house, he felt the impact of his daughter, Kay, running up to him and hugging his leg. "Daddy!," she said excitedly, "Welcome home." Byrne smiled and kneeled down to her. "Good to be home Kay."

* * *

Iris felt nervous. She don't know what made her decide to come to the court house. For whatever reason, her twin sister Dahlia had decided to call her telling her something had went wrong. For the last six months, Iris had pretending to be her sister to get something important from the young man it had been given to. However the young man, Phoenix Wright, had been so sweet and kind, the Iris found herself falling for him. Dahlia must have noticed, because apparently she had made plans to go ahead and kill Phoenix without telling Iris. Instead, Dahlia had wound up killing her ex-boyfriend Doug Swallow. Her only way out was to try and frame Phoenix.

Why Dahlia had decided to call Iris to tell her this afterward was unknown, but Iris decided to come down to the courthouse anyway. The first thing she saw surprised her. It was her cousin, Mia Fey, who apparently was acting as Phoenix's defense attorney. She had heard that Mia had made plans to leave Kurain Village in order to avoid fighting with her younger sister Maya, but she never expected her to get into law. Did this have anything to do with Misty Fey's disappearance? As Iris watched the trial continue, Iris saw her sister come to the stand. At first she pretended to try and defend Phoenix, but soon enough her true colors were revealed. When the truth about Dahlia's actions came out, Iris felt a tear go down her cheek.

As she prepared to leave the courthouse, she saw Phoenix in the lobby. Reminded of the feelings she had for him, something inside her made her call out to him. "Feenie..." Phoenix turned to around and his eyes went wide. "You...," he said in shock, "Who are you? And... Why do you look like Dollie?" Iris sighed. "I'm Dahlia's twin sister, Iris. And... We need to talk. About a lot of things." She took him to a nearby cafe where she told him the whole story. She half expected him to reject her, but instead he simply smiled. "Something inside me told me that Dahlia was a fake, but I guess I didn't the whole story behind it." He looked at her. "Listen, I know it seems sudden, but... Why don't we try picking up where we left off?" Iris smiled brightly and nodded.

* * *

As Larry Butz walked to the apartment of his current girlfriend, Cindy Stone, he spotted a strange individual knocking on the doors of the other apartments. When he saw him stop at one, knock, wait a second or two, carefully look around, then take out a lockpick kit, Larry got out his cell phone and called the police. The police quickly found the would-be burglar, who had been posing as a newspaper salesman for his M.O. As Larry watched the cops take away the burglar, he heard Cindy say behind him, "Hey Larry, I didn't know you were visiting." Larry turned to see the love of his life smiling at him.

As she led him inside the apartment, he saw the Thinker clock he had made for her. When he sounded it, it said, "I think it is 1:00." Larry raised an eyebrow. "Hey Cindy, why's this clock off by three hours." "Oh that," Cindy said, "I took it with me when I went to Paris. I guess I forgot to reset it." Larry chuckled. "If you really needed a clock for your trip, there are lighter ones out there." Cindy walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Maybe, but I also needed a reminder of the love I was coming home to." Larry blushed, then kissed her right back.

* * *

Manfred von Karma awoke in darkness. Several hours ago, he had received his first penalty for presenting forged evidence in the course of a murder investigation. He was in such a daze that he had passed out in the evidence locker. He thought he had felt some sort of vibration just before passing out. Looking around him in the darkness, he carefully moved around. Clearly, there had been some sort of earthquake that knocked out the power in the courthouse. As he turned to steady himself against what felt like a metal door, a shot rang out, and von Karma felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. It was so sudden that he cried out in agony.

At that moment, the lights came back on. Von Karma saw he was in front of an elevator. The bullet hole in the door told him the shot had come from there. As the door opened, he saw three people inside, all passed out, likely from oxygen deprivation. One of them was a court bailiff, one was a small child, and the third was von Karma's rival Gregory Edgeworth. Von Karma growled. It had been because of Gregory that von Karma had received that penalty on his record. He had always striven for perfection in his career, and now that perfection was ruined. When he saw the still smoking gun not far from where Gregory lay, he smiled and reached down for it.

But just as he was about to pick it up, a thought crossed his mind. The evidence he had presented, an autopsy repot, was proven forged since they didn't even have proof that the victim was dead. His body had never been found. The more von Karma thought it, the more he realized a simple, important fact... No one had told him there was no body. Not even his own superior had mentioned it. von Karma had simply been handed the autopsy report and been told it was important evidence. Leaving the gun where it lay, von Karma stood up. Someone else was responsible for ruining his perfect record, not Gregory. And more importantly, the case they had just been on was still open for investigation.

Shortly after this, rescue teams came into the building and revived the three people. The young boy, apparently Gregory's son, hugged his father. Apparently the boy, names Miles, had thought he had accidentally shot his father. von Karma smirked, realizing the boy had heard him scream. After that day, von Karma had the bullet removed and decided to take a vacation, not only to recover but also to clear his head about matters. He later learned that a spirit medium had been contacted to help with the current investigation, but events surrounding the contact caused her to disappear from public view. "I sense a corruption of the criminal justice system behind these events," von Karma said, "I'll have to end my vacation early."

**Stay tuned, there's another chapter coming soon.**


	2. Chapter 2: SJGO

**Another set of stories. Enjoy them and keep watching. Trust me, this all goes somewhere. Disclaimer: I don't own Ace Attorney.**

Chapter 2: Ema Skye, Apollo Justice, Klavier Gavin, and Wendy Oldbag

Ema stretched her arms as she finished work on the recent case. '_Almost two decades since that day,'_ Ema thought to herself, '_And now I can finally work as a forensic scientist. I only wish that glimmerous fop wouldn't constantly show up just to flirt with me. Not that he isn't my type, it's just that he does the same thing to almost every other girl he meets. I don't care if he is a rock star as well as a prosecutor.'_ She leaned back in her chair. _'You know, thinking back, it feels like things could have gone a lot differently that night. So many scenarios run through my mind when I think about what was happening. I could have wound up dead, I could have accidentally killed Marshall.'_ She smiled. _'But why am I thinking about all this? Things turned out fine and a serial killer was sent behind bars. Now then, back to work.'_

* * *

Apollo found himself in front of the Wright & Co. Law Offices. Soon he would be working alongside Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, the two most famous defense attorneys in the world. The two of them had been friends for years, Edgeworth eventually inspiring Wright to become an attorney himself. Apollo knocked on the door, and it was answered by a young woman. "Oh hey," she said, "You must be the new guy. I'm Maya Fey. Nick's out right now, but you can still speak with Edgeworth." Apollo quickly realized Maya must have been referring to Phoenix Wright when she said "Nick".

Inside Edgeworth was sitting at his desk, looking over the case file that was recently brought to the office. "Ah, greetings," Edgeworth said as he looked up, "You must be Apollo Justice. You're timing is perfect. As it happens we have a new case from a important family. Seems the eldest son of the family patriarch has been arrested for murdering a local doctor, and a disreputable one at that." "I guess that's good for a first case," Apollo said, "And it is nice to get a case so soon after transferring from Mr. Gavin's office, but why can't Mr. Wright do it? He's good enough." Edgeworth nodded. "Naturally, but by bad timing the case coincides with his seventh anniversary with his wife."

Apollo continued to work for Wright & Co., winning quite a few cases. His most recent one involved his old mentor, Kristoph Gavin, who had been arrested several months prior for murder, which was the reason Apollo was transferred. Of course, to be accurate, the case indirectly involved Kristoph. Apollo was now sitting next to a hospital bed, the young girl, his recent client Vera Misham, laying unconscious. She was recovering from antriquinine poisoning hidden in the nail polish she had taken with her as a good luck charm. As Apollo watched her, Vera's eyes slowly began to open. Looking over to him, she smiled. "It's you."

Apollo smiled and nodded. "Doctors say you'll be fine. The poison you ingested was just under the lethal dose. And I have more good news. The court found you not guilty." Vera smiled. "That's great." She slowly sat up on the bed. "Um, Apollo. There's something I have to tell you. It's kind of embarrassing but... Well... The first time I saw your face, I kinda felt my heart skip. I wasn't sure what to make of it at the time, just chalked it up to being nervous around a new person. But when I was lying unconscious, I kept seeing your face. I started to think, 'Is there something to this?'" Apollo blushed. "Actually, I kinda felt the same way when I saw you for the first time Vera." Vera blushed, and the two started to draw closer.

* * *

Klavier was stunned by Wright's actions in court. He had gone in there, expecting to unveil a forged evidence conspiracy, only to have it thrown in his face. When Wright revealed that forged diary page, Klavier brought it into question. But then Wright asked where his informant had learned of the diary page, since Wright had only had it from the last recess, and had a witness to prove it. It didn't help that Drew Misham didn't know the name of his client, nor had seen Wright before in his life. To add insult to injury, Zak Gramarye, the defendant turned out to have the real diary page on his person, leading to the revelation that Magnifi Gramarye, the victim, had in fact committed suicide. After that, Zak was found not guilty pretty quick.

Klavier wasn't upset he lost. To him it was inevitable that he would lose sometime in his career as a prosecutor. Not to mention he was a rookie. A skilled rookie sure, but a rookie nonetheless, so one would expect him to have a few losses early in his career. What upset him was that the whole truth hadn't come out. This trial was supposed to be against him and his brother Kristoph. But Kristoph had been fired by his client, who then hired Phoenix Wright. And why not, Wright was by far the better attorney. His ability to win the case in spite of receiving it last minute was a testament to this. Later, Kristoph visited Klavier in his office and mentioned Wright would be using the diary page. _'Phoenix has a point. Where did Kristoph learn that information. And why was it wrong? Something it not right here...'_

* * *

Jack Hammer finished giving the elderly security guard his autograph and took one last look at the set. Something about it seemed off to him. Suddenly it hit him. "Hey Carl, the fence is too far away from trailer. Those spikes could hurt someone during the shoot today." He and the set designer spent the next few minutes arguing about the fence before the director came and agreed the fence needed to be moved. Jack turned out to be right. During the action run-through, the guy he was supposed to toss off the stairs landed in the spot where the fence had been. When Vasquez, the new producer, noticed this, she quickly learned about the argument and found the set designer had deliberately placed the fence where someone would get impaled should they fall off. Later that day, Hammer learned why. Seemed the set designer had a crush on Vasquez, but she was already dating the new extra that had done the run-through with Hammer. _'I'd hate to think what could have happened if I hadn't noticed the fence,' _Hammer thought.

**Short ones, I know, but that's how they're meant to be. Read and review for next time.**


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